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Corti Brothers Newsletter for December 2006 Page 5 The Chinotto, Citrus myrtifolia Raf., or the myrtle leafed orange, is one of the members of the sour or bitter orange family. It is probably a mutation of Citrus aurantium L. which arrived from China and was planted along the Ligurian coast around 1500 by a sailor from Savona, near Genoa. Famous in Florence at the time of the Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici, Bartolomeo Bimbi (1648-1729), includes the chinotto in one of his four famous still life paintings of citrus fruit. It is a pretty looking citrus with its clustered fruits and small leaves. The fruit hold on the tree very well, but is very sour tasting. It must be candied. The fruit with its highly perfumed rind harvested from September to November while still green, has been candied in Savona since 1877, when a French confisseur moved from Apt in southeast France to Savona where higher quality, cheaper fruit was to be found. Since that time the most important production period was towards the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Chinotti were produced by numerous fruit candiers until the 1920s when several winter freezes and poor economic support put an end to Chinotto production in the area of Savona. There are now only two candy makers who produce Chinotti in Maraschino. Augusto Vincenzo Besio, fruit candiers since 1860, produce the best. The disappearance of this specialty has been halted by Slow Food which has created a Presidium to protect it from disappearing completely. The green Chinotti are picked and then brined for three weeks after which the fruits are cooked in successively heavier sugar syrup and then jarred with the addition of Italy’s famous clear cherry brandy, Maraschino. They are then ready to be enjoyed after dessert as a digestive. Cut into quarters and served, they are relished for their perfumed bitterness which causes salivation, thus promoting digestion. Unusual and delicious, they are a taste of the past.
It was in our December 2003 newsletter that Corti Brothers offered beans from Pescadero, just south of San Francisco, on the Pacific coast. This year, produced by our special grower, we can offer newly harvested Pescadero Cranberry beans, a mottled bean, about 30 years old as a cultivar. Freshly harvested dried beans are a revelation in bean flavor and cooking. They need less time soaking, and their texture is creamier and fluffier. Freshly harvested beans cook very rapidly and you must be careful not to overcook them–unless you want bean soup; they will fall apart. Best cooked on a gentle fire rather than a strong one so that they simmer rather than boil, taste for tenderness at about 40 minutes and then add salt. Remove from heat and let cool in their broth. Now you have cooked beans ready for any dish.Pescadero Cranberry Beans $4.99 per pound, random weight approx. 2 lb. bag (#1722) Please note: This item is sold in Random Weights. Please contact us to order. It is again time to enjoy the flavors of some atavistic dishes: dried and salted fish that made up a lot of our diet before the modern period. Stockfish, stoccafisso, is nothing more than naturally air dried cod fish from the Lofoten Islands off Norway’s west coast, fished at the end of February to mid April, when the fish descend from the Barents Sea to spawn off the Lofoten coast. Headed, gutted, and left to dry in the cold Norwegian air until June, the fish are dried in pairs of the same size, hung over pyramidal shaped trellises. Cod, Gadus morhua, is about 80% water, which is the only thing removed in making stockfish. Because it is rich in protein, important vitamins, iron, and calcium, this is one of the important forms of preserved food, in, possibly, the most natural form of preservation known. Salting is an altogether different thing. Salt Cod, baccalà, bacalao, bacalhau is the same fish, split and heavily salted. At its best, it is caught, split and salted. Nowadays, some is from frozen fish, thawed and then quickly salted and sold. There are even some chef-restauranteurs who salt fresh fish for a few days and then call this fish “salt cod.” It is a real stretch of the imagination once you’ve experienced the authentic product. If you never have, Norwegian superior salt cod from large fish is what you want to try. We have “Ragno” quality stockfish and sell it as a whole fish, which weighs about 1.4 pounds. There are two types: beaten and whole. Beaten means that the whole fish has been put through rollers to break down the flesh and the whole, is, well, whole. Stockfish will re-hydrate in between 10 to 12 days of soaking in frequently changed cold water. Salt cod will re-hydrate in about three days, changing its water twice a day. Once re-hydrated, both fish can be simply cooked by putting the fish in cold water and bringing it to a simmer. By this time the fish is practically cooked, but then can be used in other preparations. The skin and bones of both stockfish and salt cod can be removed very easily after this first cooking. Salt cod could then be finished in a rich cream sauce, or braised with tomato, or battered and fried like tempura. Stockfish requires a bit more work. It can be braised in Genovese style; served as the Scandinavians do with melted butter and potatoes; or like salt cod, in a simple salad with cooked waxy potatoes, chopped parsley, garlic, and good oil. Another excellent combination would be with Pescadero cranberry beans. Upon request, Corti Brothers will gladly send recipe instructions with our stockfish. Both stockfish and salt cod of the quality we offer are not often found. Here is your chance to try some classic dishes made with the highest possible quality raw material. You might just get hooked! Stockfish “Ragno” $32.99 per pound per whole fish. Please specify: Beaten (#1723) Whole (#1724) Norwegian Superior Salt Cod (with skin and bones) random pieces $12.99 per lb (#1725) Paul Bertolli is a noted chef in California’s Bay Area. Anyone interested in what happens with food in California knows his name. A former musician, Paul arrived at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, worked magic in the kitchen there, wrote a cookbook and then headed off to Oliveto in Oakland. There, just as at Chez Panisse, he began curing his own pork products. This became such a fascination that he took the plunge and started his own sausage company after going through a program on how to make sausages and such on a commercial scale. Fra'mani is the result. Using excellent, properly raised pork, his own recipes, and a spanking new plant in Berkeley, Fra'mani salame has made a mark on the cured sausage scene in California. There is nothing like them on the market either in quality parameters or flavor. On a recent visit to the Fra'mani plant, I saw some slightly odd shaped salami curing. They were in slightly different shapes and sizes from the normal production. I asked to taste them and was told they are the mistakes in production, but not mistakes in quality, just misshapen during the stuffing and not in any way a problem. But they were difficult to sell since their shape did not fit with the normal product sold. Paul called one “Malfatti” (badly formed,) the other “Bastardi” (you know the translation.) I liked both products and the names, so we bought them. (These are not really their names, but are what they are called in the plant. I think they are very à propos.) Cured in natural casings, both Bastardi and Malfatti have a coarsely chopped look--dense red meat, nicely marbled with pearly white fat–delicately spiced, and perfumed with garlic. Their white mold coating has an intriguing scent. The Bastardi weigh roughly 8-10 ounces each, in varying shapes. The Malfatti are more shriveled looking, 10-12 inches long and about 10-11ounces in weight. Both keep extremely well uncut in the refrigerator. They are made for keeping on hand for those impromptu gatherings (or invitation parties) during the holidays. They should be hand cut in thick-ish slices.
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Corti Brothers
Sacramento CA
